GM 25: RAPID REACTS

Honestly I don’t know what to think about this kid’s play anymore. One minute his play is stellar play — 5 straight points and 10 overall in 1st Q — and the next minute you want to bench the kid — in the 4th Q he had a stretch where he missed an ill-advised FG; then had a TO; next he air balled a 3PA and followed that up by dribbling the shot clock out. I’ll have more in depth thoughts on Turner after the jump.

After a slow start (0-5 on FGAs), Thad recovered to have a decent game. His solid 3rd Q kept the Sixers in this game. However he had significant trouble on the defensive end of the floor vs. DAL.

Kwame Brown, C19 MIN | 2-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 4 PTS | -9

Again, I am grading this on “The Kwame Curve”, so 7 rebs in 19 minutes is just a sick outing for this guy. Still the smooth dime from Wayns that he blew in the 2nd Q drove me crazy and Kaman abused him.

Sooner or later J-Rich going to find his stroke, right? It amazes me how hard it is for career jump shooters to score when they have to create their own shots like Jason is being forced to do this year. Still he hits two shot clock buzzer beaters that bailed the 7-6 out and he provided some defensive presence on Mayo in the 2nd half, so not a terrible night.

Nick Young, SG24 MIN | 3-6 FG | 1-1 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 8 PTS | -9

He had a 4-point play and scored 6 straight in the 1st Q…That’s about all he did last night. His defensive effort on Mayo was pathetic

Lavoy Allen, PF6 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 2 PTS | +6

Not sure what he has done wrong, to apparently end up in the Do(u)g-house, but the Sixers could have used him on the floor last night.

This is the D-Wright I was looking for when we acquired this guy. I even thought he did a decent job of taking the ball to the cup last night. He kept the Sixers in this game all by himself in the late 4th Q and if we can get efforts like this more frequently from Wright, this team could do some damage when Holiday gets back.

A very solid night from Spencer. I love that he got to the FT line 8 times and knocked all of those freebies down. His 10 straight in the 4th kept the Sixers alive in this one. However his help defense on Mayo (Blew by Hawes 2x) and his man-to-man on Kaman in the final minutes was brutal.

Maalik Wayns, PG21 MIN | 1-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 9 AST | 3 PTS | +2

I realize that his shooting last night was atrocious and that can not continue, but I thought the Sixers offense flowed much better with Wayns at the PG (more on this later). His behind the back dime to Allen in the 2nd Q capped off a 9-2 run. And when DC put him at the point with 3:55 in the game, he (w/ a lot of help from Wright) pushed the Sixers to make this game entertaining down the stretch.

1. Let’s talk about Turner as our PG. For me, this experiment can end fast enough. The offense is simply stagnant (or more stagnant) when Turner is at the point. I’m not saying it’s his fault, it’s just a fact of the type of player he is at this time. Turner loves to pound the ball into the floor and too frequently last night he did so to the point where the shot clock hit single digits and no one else on the Sixers had touched the rock. He’s also does not excel in the pick & roll game which has become a staple for Collins and the 7-6 this season. There’s simply not a lot of movement in the offense when Turner is the floor general. While Wayns certainly is not a better overall player, I wouldn’t mind seeing a little more of him at the point while Holiday is out as I thought the team moved the ball much better with him in the game.

2. A little more on the ET front…He needs to get his emotions in check. I love that he is a fierce competitor, but he needs to channel those emotions for the good of the team. We have seen an outburst from him nearly every night and it’s gotten annoying. Last night in the 3rd Q he was fouled and didn’t get the call, so he pouted and complained to the refs and did not get back on defense. On the Sixers next possession he was visibly pissed, got out of control with the rock and was whistled for an O-foul. Later in the Q, the cameras caught him complaining in a very animated fashion to asst. coach Aaron Mckie on the bench. There was also an exchange the cameras caught between him and DC during a timeout where he refused to talk to Doug. Time to grow up ET.

3. Despite a nice run in the 4th Q to make this game interesting/entertaining, I thought the Sixers let this one slip away in this stanza. DAL was primed for an L last night — especially after Brand got scratched and Fisher was injured in the 1st Q. IMO the Sixers blew this one because they relied to heavily on the jumper during the final Q of the game. Excluding D-Wright’s FGAs and hot hand, the rest of the Sixers took 11 shots from 16 feet or deeper in that Q. They made just 2 of those FGAs. OUCH

4. In the opening Q, the Mavs scored 16 points in the paint, shot 55% from the field and 66% on 3PAs. It was a sign of things to come for the Sixers defense which struggled all night to get stops (Dallas shot 54% for the game and scored 48 points in the paint.).

5. This past off-season, I wanted OJ Mayo in a Sixers uniform so badly. Last night you all saw why I was/am so in love with his game…The Sixers scored ZERO fast break points in the 1st half and did not get their 1st FB bucket until the 7:30 mark of the 3rd Q…DAL scored 13 points off Sixers TO’s in the 1st half.

6. Dallas was holding on to an 88-82 lead when Mayo and Kaman took over late. The new-ish members of the Mavs scored 17 of the team’s last 19 points to help Dallas win…Mayo had nine points and three assists in the final 6:17…He hit a 22-footer and Kaman made three shots in a row in an 8-2 run that made it 96-84. After the Sixers scored the next six, the pair combined to hit three shots in a row to push the lead up to 11 and the 7-6 were done.